The Kansas City Chiefs have lost a defensive assistant to the Arizona Cardinals, as new head coach Mike LaFleur builds out his initial coaching staff in his first season in the desert. Former Chiefs outside linebackers coach Rod Wilson has accepted a position with the Cardinals to become an inside linebackers coach under defensive coordinator Nick Rallis.
In his place, the Chiefs are sliding a familiar face into the role as Matt House becomes a linebackers coach once again.
House, who returned to Kansas City as a senior defensive assistant in '25, was previously with the Chiefs from 2019-2021 as the team's linebackers coach. He left after three seasons to serve as Brian Kelly's defensive coordinator at LSU.
The Chiefs have adjusted Steve Spagnuolo's staff a bit more after the Arizona Cardinals hired away a linebackers coach.
As for Wilson, he coached with the Chiefs organization for seven seasons over two separate stints. He worked with Kansas City's outside linebackers for each of the last two years after previously having served as a defensive assistant in 2022-23.
The Chiefs originally hired Wilson back in 2017 to work as an assistant special teams coach under Dave Toub's tutelage. He would remain in that role through the 2019 season, when he left to coach linebackers for the University of South Carolina for a year and then inside linebackers at Coastal Carolina in '21. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo hired Wilson back in 2022.
Wilson was the Chicago Bears seventh-round selection in the 2010 NFL Draft, and he bounced around the NFL for six years as a defensive back, with stints in Tampa Bay and Jacksonville as well.
Most of the Chiefs' coaching changes this offseason have come on the offensive side of the ball, but Spagnuolo's unit has seen a few other changes. Joe Cullen took a couple of DC interviews, but will return for another season as the d-line coach. He'll do so with a familiar assistant with the return of Terry Bradden Jr. after a year away at Nebraska. In the secondary, the Chiefs added veteran defensive backs coach Andre Curtis to work with Dave Merritt. Former Coastal Carolina DB coach C.J. Cox was also added in a quality control role.